Grace and Grit

'Twas the night before Christmas... and they were praying for YOU. My Christmas Eve is just coming to a close. It's been one busy day trying to balance time between the shelter and family, but it has been a fantastic day full of tradition, joy, and reflection. At the shelter this evening we attended a candlelight Christmas Eve service. I had never been to one at this church before. For those of you that don't know I recently transferred to another shelter location (still with The Sheepfold but now a different city). I have been adjusting to all the changes and now feel settled into this new home. The service was beautiful and rich with meaning as we reflected on the significance of the best gift we could ever receive, Jesus. It is especially intriguing for our moms to think of God choosing to enter the world as a baby...who had a mother who changed His diapers, watched Him learn to walk, talk, and introduced Him to the world that He created. After church we came ho

The following is from one of my moms. It's always better when you can hear their story in their own words rather than mine.  The face of every mother and child is imprinted on my heart, including this one.  These stories continue long after they leave the "sheltered life."  Although not every woman that enters our shelter leaves with her life in order and her kids healthy and happy, it is good to remember that each of them experienced Love while they were with us. That is my purpose: Love God, Love People. By the way, I'm ok with spending my whole life perfecting that pursuit.  <3 “A new command  I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.   By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35 ________________________________________________ When I was asked to write about what led me to The Sheepfold my mind started cycling through old memories. I began revisiting thoug

If you were a fly on the wall tonight you would have heard some interesting conversation around our dinner table. One of our (or should I say MY) favorite games to play after dinner is trying to come up with the grossest...yet still edible...food combinations we can think of. The winner receives the satisfaction of seeing the hilarious expressions on all of the losers faces as they imagine what the winner's combination would actually taste like. ;-) *No actual octopi were harmed in the making of this cake Tonight the winning combinations were tied between Chunky Lobster Fruit Smoothies and Octopus Topped Cake with Ink Frosting. I guess we were on a seafood kick. You're welcome. Chunky Lobster Fruit Smoothie anyone? :-) Also, sometimes kids misunderstand things in very unique ways. I submit for your enjoyment the following conversation: Me - "Would you like some boysenberry jam on your toast?" *child looks at me appalled* 5 yr Old Girl - "No thank y

 " Little children, let us not  love in word or talk but in deed and  in truth." - 1 John 3:18 It's been awhile since I have mentioned a truly fantastic part of what I get to see at The Sheepfold and that is our volunteers! I know I have posted (several times) about our amazing Christmases and some crazy specific donations like canned smoked oysters  and people showing up with dinner when there was no food to put on the table, but that's only a teeny tiny part of the awesomeness that I get to see on a regular basis. The Sheepfold is going strong because of the support from thousands of really awesome individuals and groups. This past Saturday I had the privilege of receiving a group of volunteers at the shelter. It was a local small group from a church and as part of their community building and spiritual growth they decided they wanted to participate in some kind of service project. Lucky us, they looked up The Sheepfold! They showed up early on a Saturday

Ironically, a couple weeks after my last post " Goodbyes ," I experienced my most difficult goodbye yet. The grief knocked me off my feet and onto my knees crying out to God. My heart is still aching from it. Sometimes the process of letting go and allowing God to mend a broken heart can take awhile...especially because I have a tendency to work over the past in my mind as if I can change history. Silly Me. I don't really feel like relaying the events of the last goodbye. Maybe at a later date it will come up, but not yet. Forgive me? In the mean time I am re-reading my last post because I need the reminder that God is the mender of all things broken. A little while ago two of our moms made us a beautiful scrapbook that they filled with pictures of them and their children as well as notes of things they were grateful for. It is so precious to each of my fellow house managers, especially after an emotionally difficult week. I am going to share with you one of the note

Confession: This post has been sitting as a draft for almost six months because I haven't had the emotional energy to dwell on this subject (goodbyes). Although I've known I wanted to tackle it for some time, I also wanted to write it from a peaceful frame of mind and it's taken awhile to get there. With the recent passing of The Sheepfold's founder, Fran Lundquist, I have been spending more time thinking of the thousands of women who must have walked through The Sheepfold's doors over the past 30+ years. Just in my short time working here I have known, loved, guided, served, and been blessed by at least 30 women and 50+ children. Some stayed just a few weeks, others months, and some even a year. That's just at my house, not including the hundreds of women I've met at the Sheepfold's other shelter houses and alumni gatherings. As I have written here before, domestic violence does not effect one demographic more than another. We have young women and ol

So I got a bit behind with posting last month, but better late than never right? :-) Here is another story of one of our moms from Christmas past. Natasha* came to the Sheepfold about a week before Christmas. Right in the middle of the office staff's busiest season! We were the only one of the Sheepfold's shelters that had an opening so Natasha was placed with us. She and her two children had been homeless for almost 1.5 years in the LA area, spending the seasons in and out of temporary shelters. Her son was 7 and her daughter not quite 2. Natasha had worked full-time in a warehouse until her daughter was born. After that, childcare was no longer affordable when combined with her other living expenses and after trying to make ends meet for several months they were finally evicted and spent their days on the streets. When Natasha and her children arrived at the shelter we showed them their room and let them get settled. Her son was wearing only a t-shirt, old sweat p

Last year I shared my first impressions of a Sheepfold Christmas. If you haven't read that post you can read it here . This Christmas was a little less chaotic because my house wasn't quite as full, but it was every bit as precious as last year. Rather than share my experiences I thought I'd let you read one of our moms' thoughts on Christmas at the Sheepfold. But first, a little bit of background on this mom. :-) Last Christmas our mom (who I will call Beth*) was homeless and staying at an emergency shelter. Emergency shelters are short-term, usually co-ed places where you can sleep, take a shower, and have a hot meal. If you've seen the film The Pursuit of Happynes s it is the kind of shelter where you have to wait in line hoping they'll have a bed for you each night. They can be scary places for someone like Beth with two children under the age of 4. She was hopeful however that this would be a blessed first Christmas for her little ones. The shelter she w